MARYSVILLE — Mutual frustration was one thing that everyone who spoke at the Marysville School District’s Feb. 10 meeting on the mid-school year budget reductions could agree on.
In spite of the Tulalip Tribes announcing earlier that day that they would be donating $1.26 million to the school district, the closest to good news that MSD Superintendent Dr. Larry Nyland could deliver to those looking to bring varsity athletics to the Marysville Getchell High School campus was that the Tribes had pledged $10,000 to the C-squads at Getchell.
After an earlier statement by the Citizens to Save Marysville Getchell Sports came under fire from former Marysville School Board member and current Tribal Board member Don Hatch Jr. at the School Board’s Feb. 7 meeting, members of that group clarified that they were not threatening to withhold their own votes from a future levy. Rather, group members Brian and Brenda Duce agreed that athletics cuts at Getchell could disincline other members of the community from passing a levy which they themselves deemed much-needed.
Although there was no shortage of different voices at the Feb. 10 meeting, the Duces were especially vocal about their concerns, which also included rumors of changes to how the Small Learning Communities on the Getchell campus would be run. Assistant Superintendent Gail Miller assured attendees that Getchell students who had started crossovers would be able to continue them, but Nyland noted that one of the purposes of instituting the SLCs was to avoid Getchell becoming a single comprehensive high school. Brian Duce acknowledged that this made sense academically, but warned that this detracted from the creation of a common school spirit.
“This is not what I sold to my community,” said Brenda Duce, who warned that the issues of crossovers and athletics would result in a number of students leaving Getchell. “I have been your ally, because you’ve done great things in this district,” she told Nyland. “You’ve improved our academics tremendously, but it feels like everything else has fallen by the wayside.”
“The morale at Getchell is so low right now,” said Sherri Crenshaw, former president of the School Board and a Getchell parent. “We’re trying to preserve it and allow these kids to thrive, but they’re devastated.”
Mari-Anne Nehring suggested that “a lot of fluff” could be trimmed from the athletic budget to allow Getchell students to have something more than what they have now.
“We’re not asking for everything,” Nehring said. “We don’t need $4,000 warmups.”
“Our athletic budget for Getchell was designed to be equitable to that of Marysville-Pilchuck, not less,” said Jim Baker, the district’s executive director of finance.
“That’s like saying it’s either steak and lobster or nothing,” Nehring said.
When Brenda Duce asked Nyland if varsity athletics for Getchell would be taken off the table indefinitely, Nyland repeated that the district plans for the Getchell Chargers to take to the fields in the fall of 2012, but added, “We’re doing the best that we can to plan for uncertain economic times.”
